The present invention concerns game pieces, games that employ game pieces and methods of playing a game using one or more game pieces.
Game manufacturers produce a variety of game pieces and battle games for two or more players, in which the game pieces can be employed. Trading card games, in which trading cards collected by players are used for battling other players' trading cards, are well known. Conventional trading card games typically include a plurality of character battle cards which can be used alone or in combination with energy cards to battle other players' character battle cards. An example of a trading card game is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,851, which discloses a card game toy that includes a master card representing the player and a plurality of monster battle cards, each of which includes a printed representation of the monster and printed characteristics of the monster. In playing the game of the '851 patent, each player's battle cards and master card are placed on a battle field and each player is capable of attacking an opponent's battle card or master card, defending one's own battle or master card, moving one of the battle cards within the battle field or evicting a battle card from the battle field. When one player uses one of its cards to attack one or more of another player's cards, the printed characteristics are used to determine the outcome or result of the attack.
Some conventional games have added a degree of realism to the game by using three-dimensional figures representing characters in the game instead of trading cards. An example of such games is disclosed in U.S. published applications numbers US 2002/0180150 and US 2003/0071414. In particular, the 2002/0180150 and 2003/0071414 publications disclose using miniature figures as game pieces in a game, in which the game pieces of opposing players are used to battle one another. In order to eliminate frequent reference to a manual to keep track of changes in the characteristics of each game piece as the game progresses, each of the game pieces in the 2002/0180150 and 2003/0071414 includes a base and variable printed characteristics of the game piece inserted in the base, such that the base can be adjusted to display current characteristics of the game piece. The characteristics displayed on the base of the game piece are used in determining the outcome of the attack or defense when one player uses its game piece to battle another player's game piece.
In the above-described conventional games, the determination of the outcome of the battle between two game pieces is often complicated and may become tedious for the players, since the game pieces typically include multiple characteristics. Accordingly, a game piece for use in a battle game and a battle game which simplifies the determination of the battle outcome is desired. Moreover, in order to enhance the enjoyment of the battle game, a game that includes additional new characters, options and strategies is also desired.